College Sports Blog

ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series returns Sunday; University of Houston plays a role in story

ESPN’s excellent 30 for 30 documentary series brushes up against our area sports world again Sunday night, but this time it’s college basketball, not football.

North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano cuts the net after North Carolina State defeated Houston 54-52 to win the NCAA Men's National Basketball Final Four title held in Albuquerque, NM, at the University of New Mexico Arena on April 4, 1983.

In the wake of a look at idiosyncratic former University of Texas running back Ricky Williams in “Run Ricky Run” and the iconic “Pony Excess,” which delved into an SMU football program gone awry, 30 for 30’s 50th offering takes a stellar look at North Carolina State’s 1983 NCAA men’s basketball championship.

Of course, the Wolfpack could never be celebrating the 30th anniversary of its title run without the compliance of the University of Houston, champions of the late Southwest Conference.

The underdog Wolfpack, those with long memories might recall, won the title in Albuquerque, N.M. with a stunning 54-52 upset victory over the Cougars’ Phi Slama Jama edition.

Houston, which also lost the NCAA title game in 1984, remains the last Texas school to play on the final Monday night of the college basketball season.

Sigh.

The documentary portrays the Phis as the final Goliaths to lose to “a team of destiny.” It focuses not on the college team that featured Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, recognized as two of the NBA’s 50 all-time bests, but on the Pack, a team that caught lightning in a bottle and ran with it.

N.C. State, seeded fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, had little chance of advancing to the NCAA Tournament. The championship was the Wolfpack’s only hope to extend its season into the then 52-team NCAA Tournament.

N.C. State earned its ticket with a one-point come-from-behind victory over Wake Forest, an overtime victory over top-seeded North Carolina, which featured Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins, and a three-point championship game victory over Ralph Sampson-led Virginia.

The NCAA Tournament featured unlikely come-from-behind victories over Pepperdine and UNLV as well as a one-point upset over Virginia in their fourth meeting of the season.

It was spirited by the late Jim Valvano, the coach who engineered the Wolfpack’s surge and who has achieved sainthood status at ESPN, where he was a broadcaster when he died of cancer in 1993 at the age of 47. The documentary suggests that Valvano, who against all odds promised a championship when he arrived at North Carolina State in 1980, outcoached those he came up against. But to its credit, it doesn’t harp on the Valvano-Guy Lewis matchup in the final.

Valvano’s battle with cancer is a theme throughout. The $125 million that the foundation created in his name has raised for cancer research is mentioned. But that it is only a footnote is a tribute to the rest of this story.

Note that probably interests only me: Gary Bender called the N.C. State victory over Houston for CBS. He worked alongside Billy Packer. Bender, who made his Final Four debut in 1982, was replaced in the play-by-play seat by Brent Musburger in 1985.

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